The report warns online offenders are likely to offend in the non-virtual world (Picture: PA)

Anyone caught with the images – which are becoming more extreme and sadistic – should be treated as a potential attacker, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre said.

But a lack of resources means it is ‘unachievable’, a report by the group found.

‘There is a clear correlation between IIOC (indecent images of children) offending and contact sexual offending against children although causation cannot be established,’ it said.

Access to children was a ‘key factor in the assessment of an offender’s risk’ and the link between possessing images and carrying out attacks ‘highlights the need to consider each possession offender as a potential contact offender to some extent’.

Referrals to Ceop increased by 181 per cent between April last year and March, figures showed.

‘The landscape of austerity coupled with the increasing volumes of work that child protection teams are faced with in the UK is unprecedented,’ the report said.

‘This point in time has the potential to be a golden age for child protection but the evolution of technology is likely to make the internet an increasingly difficult place to investigate.

‘The predicted dramatic rise in work volumes will require a fresh look at policing priorities and the resources allocated to this area of policing.’

Jon Brown, head of the NSPCC’s sexual abuse programme, said: ‘This supports research the NSPCC carried out last year which revealed one in three of those convicted of possessing child abuse images has also committed other serious sexual offences against children.’